Flemings to be able to adopt a child from New York soon

Flemish residents will be able to adopt a child from New York. Five pilot projects will be started soon, De Standaard reports.

Flemish and federal adoption experts have reached a deal on the matter, but the whole procedure will cost future parents a pretty penny.

The adoption centre 'Het Kleine Mirakel' (The Little Miracle) will supervise the adoption procedure and is starting up 5 pilot projects in the state of New York.

The Flemish Centre for Adoption (VCA) gave the project the go-ahead, and also reached a deal on the matter with federal colleagues. Frictions between the federal and regional levels triggered problems for adoptions from Ethiopia and Uganda in the past, but this should not pose a problem now.

Children eligible for adoption will be those that are being given up by their parents. This could be an Afro-American mother battling a drug addiction. Candidates to adopt a child will have to pay for all expenses during the process, including the medical care and the judicial procedure in the United States.

This could be a lot of money, De Standaard writes, citing the family organisation for the newly-borns 'Kind en Gezin'. The cost could go to almost 40,000 dollars on the American side, and almost 5,000 euros on the Flemish side.